Sarah Says

It’s a new year and the first month is done which means we’ve got a lot to talk about. I read eight books to kick off 2023 and there were five Hallmark New Year New Movies on TV. Listen now for all my thoughts on The Rom-Com Agenda, The Second You’re Single, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, Courtiers, and the Briar Off-Campus Series by Elle Kennedy. Hallmark didn’t start strong in my opinion with A Dog Lover’s Guide to Dating, but picked it up with the continuation of The Wedding Veil series with The Wedding Veil Expectations, Inspiration, and Journey. Journey absolutely became my new favorite movie and the storyline to beat. Finally they closed out with Love in Glacier National, which I liked, but it had so many plot holes I’m just confused. Listen now for all the thoughts and lots of laughs!

In the run up to 2023, I was sick, run down, and trying to make another vision board worthy of Pinterest and the year. But I took real stock on what I wanted this year and gave it a few days into the new year to make sure everything on my board was exactly what I wanted. It’s never too late to make a vision board for your year so even if you haven’t yet, hopefully this inspires you to get working on one! We still have 11 months to go this year!

This week I’m back with part two of my 2022 books in review including the books you never heard about from November and December! Catch all my final (and first) thoughts on the second half of books I read in 2022 including: July

The Littlest Library

A Guide to Being Just Friends

Better Than the Movies

Undercover Bromance

August

The Love Connection

Dream On

Crazy Stupid Bromance

Meet Me Under The Mistletoe

Every Summer After

September

Here For The Drama

Love On The Brain

Never Rescue a Rogue

The Make-Up Test

The Dead Romantics

October

All I Want For Christmas

Something in the Heir

Isn’t It Bromantic

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Below Zero

The Kiss Curse

November

Marlowe Banks, Rediscovered

Merry Little Meet Cute

One Last Gift

Single and Ready to Jingle

December

A Very Merry Bromance

The Christmas Wish

The Matzah Ball

I know it’s almost the end of January, but I’m here with part one of my reading list of 2022 and my last thoughts. Maybe you missed a monthly wrap, or you’re brand new and looking for some reading inspiration, I’m looking back on all the books I read and giving my final thoughts. In part one I recap everything I read this year from January to June. January Enjoy the View

To Sir, With Love

Never Fall For Your Fiancée

Just Haven’t Met You Yet

February

If The Shoe Fits

Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead

The Holiday Plan

Eight Perfect Hours

The Billionaire’s Wake-Up-Call Girl

March

Meet Me In Hawaii

Breaking the Billionaires Rules

The Fastest Way To Fall

April

Return Billionaire To Sender

Hook, Line, and Sinker

The Roughest Draft

To Marry and To Meddle

May

Always You

Bad Luck Bridesmaid

Hero

The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancée

Book Lovers

The Soulmate Equation (re-read)

The Singles Table

June

Just Not That Into Billionaires

The Love Hypothesis

By the Book

Meant To Be Mine

The Bromance Book Club

Be With Me

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone can you believe it’s the end of the 2022 Christmas movie season? After a long nine weeks and 105 movies later this is the final recap of the year! Catch up now to see how the channels fared at the end of the season and excuse the poor voice, my body really has said “you’re done” for the season! Hallmark had its first Kwanzaa movie with Holiday Heritage which I found a snooze fest, but found their chemistry with Twas The Night Before Christmas and finished spectacular with Hanukkah on Rye. Lifetime really brought their A game the final weekend with A Record Breaking Christmas, The Holiday Dating Guide, and Wrapped Up in Love, but faltered a bit with A Christmas to Treasure. Hallmark Movies and Mysteries finished on a four week streak of making me ugly cry with Five More Minutes: Moments like These. UpTV found a hit with Sappy Holiday, but had kind of a blah movie in An Eclectic Christmas. To be fair, they have two more movies, but I won’t be watching them. And finally, GAC missed with Aisle Be Home for Christmas, but came in with A Brush with Christmas and almost made me reconsider next year. Netflix also debuted one last movie, I Believe in Santa, and while it was super corny, it was also pretty cute. Listen now to find their ultimate year-end rankings and have a happy holiday weekend!

The second to last week of new 2022 Christmas tv movies is done and we have a lot to discuss! First up, let’s talk about Amazon Prime trying to sneak in Christmas movies against my knowledge- don’t worry I watched them. Your Christmas or Mine is definitely a watch, but leave Hotel For The Holidays alone. Hallmark had a so-so week this week, starting surprisingly strong in my opinion with The Most Colorful Time of the Year, then falling a bit off on Christmas Class Reunion, Movies and Mysteries went a third straight week making me ugly cry with The Gift of Peace, and rounding out with a resounding win in The Holiday Sitter (despite the plot, house, and mom being the same as Christmas Next Door). Lifetime was Lifetime with Scentsational Christmas and A Recipe for Joy, but won the Saturday spot with Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas, and then finished with another A+ title and plot but bad chemistry with Single and Ready to Jingle. UpTV only had two movies this week, A Royal Christmas Match was better than expected but still nothing overly special, and then absolutely shocking us with Santa’s Got Style featuring Franco Lo Presti. Hallmark, get on the phone and get this man in movies! And then there was GAC Family. I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I am running away from home and emancipating myself from them next year after The Art of Christmas and Crown Prince of Christmas, aka the worst Christmas movie I’ve ever seen. Ever. There’s no way they actually think they’re competing with the other channels right? Right?? Listen to all that and more now!

Ho ho ho the week 7 2022 Christmas movie wrap up is here bringing lots of drama and good cheer with it! On the heels of Neal Bledsoe announcing his departure from GAC Family we have a lot to discuss with this week’s movie lineup. Hallmark and Lifetime went back and forth this week on the best of. Lifetime’s Thursday movie, Serving up the Holidays was not a watch, while Cloudy with a Chance of Christmas on Friday was a redemption chemistry movie for Brandon Quinn, A New Orleans Noel on Saturday took the top award, and they rounded out with Merry Textmas that had a great title and plot but again - the chemistry just wasn’t there for me. Hallmark started with A Big Fat Family Christmas which was good but slow to help the main character, and then moved to a magical storybook movie with A Fabled Holiday starring one of my favorites, Ryan Paevey. Their HMM movie The Holiday Stocking once again left me in absolute shambles and they finished strong winning Sunday with Undercover Holiday. UpTV proved why I could really do without their movies most of the time with absolute train wrecks both Friday and Saturday with Christmas in the Wilds and Christmas on the Slopes. Their Sunday movie Christmas on the Rocks which featured another Sarah, actually earned a high 4 despite their terrible movie poster. That leaves us with GAC Family again. Candace Cameron Bure had another feature film with her good friend Andrea Barber in the lead role in Candy Cane Lane, but what is with all the marriage problems this year?? Sunday they had B&B Merry featuring a typecast Jesse Hutch and Jen Lilley and it was the first movie of hers I didn’t want to turn off in the first five minutes so that says a lot for both films. All that plus more laughs now!

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone! We’re officially on the other side of the 2022 Christmas TV movie season, can you believe it?? There was no UpTV this week and I purposefully didn’t watch Netflix’s The Noel Diary just yet but that didn’t stop us from the biggest week yet featuring a full lineup on Hallmark, Lifetime, and GAC Family. Hallmark started strong with My Southern Family Christmas on Thanksgiving night but fell by the wayside with #Xmas and A Royal Corgi Christmas on Friday. The crushed Saturday night with A Tale of Two Christmases and Lacey Chabert’s Haul out the Holly and then finished strong on Sunday with A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe and easily winning the coveted 8pm Sunday after thanksgiving slot with A Holiday Spectacular featuring the Rockettes. Hallmark Movies and Mysteries’s Time For Him to Come Home For Christmas left me bawling and is my new favorite from that channel. Lifetime stayed solid this week with The 12 Days of Christmas Eve featuring Kelsey Grammer and won Friday with Mario Lopez and Jana Kramer’s Steppin into the Holiday. Their Sunday Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman mini reunion with Jane Seymour and Joe Lando was a fantastic Sunday edition but just didn’t quiet knock off Hallmark. Baking All the Way on Thursday just wasn’t a watch for me. And then GAC Family finally delivered a solid movie on Friday with Christmas at the Drive-In featuring Danica McKellar and Neal Bledsoe. Saturday’s I’m Glad it’s Christmas with Gladys Knight, Jessica Lowndes, and Paul Greene wasn’t a win for me, and Sunday’s Candace Cameron Bure’s debut A Christmas…Present fell a little flat for me. Listen to all that and more now!

It’s here, it’s here, just in time for all your holiday weekend travel plans: the week 5 breakdown of all the best (and worst) TV Christmas movies. Netflix crushed it again with another childhood favorite, Freddie Prinze Jr in Christmas with You, and Hallmark hit Christmas gold with Three Wise Men and a Baby (38:40) and Inventing the Christmas Prince. Their Sunday movie, When I Think of Christmas though left a lot to be desired while HMM did their job in making me cry with Long Lost Christmas, but for me there was just something missing in it. Lifetime continued it’s disappointing Thursday movies with Sweet Navidad, and had a bizarrely lackluster turnout of a Sweet Magnolias reunion of Brooke Elliot and Brandon Quinn in A Country Christmas Harmony, but showed up with Santa Bootcamp, and finished okay with A Show-Stopping Christmas. UpTV only had two this week, The Holiday Swap was a Holiday Flop, but Christmas Lucky Charm was a Christmas version of Good Luck Chuck that I loved. That leaves GAC Family. Yet another week of predictable and safe plots and more Christmas tree farms in danger. Steer clear. Find all that and more now, and remember to shop small this Saturday and find exclusive discounts on podcast merchandise and CATC prints on www.sockbunstudios.com

It’s our biggest week yet and we still haven’t reached the halfway point of 2022’s Christmas Around the Channels. Hallmark and Lifetime brought their A games this week (minus Christmas on Mistletoe Lake) and it was good to see because UpTV and GAC Family continue to be rollercoasters. The Royal Nanny, In Merry Measure, Christmas at the Golden Dragon all performed well for Hallmark. Our Italian Christmas Memories brought back the proper HMM feels. Lifetime started bad with Christmas on Mistletoe Lake and the Dog Days of Christmas but stole Saturday with Reindeer Homecoming Games and finished strong with Six Degrees of Santa. Then there was UpTV and GAC Family. Out of the four movies, only one was good and that was The Christmas Retreat. I continued to be baffled by GAC and it’s not getting any better as the weeks go. Netflix kicked off Netflixmas with Falling for Christmas which was a triumphant return for Lindsay Lohan. Listen now for all that and more!